Virtual Litchi Mission

[wombat]

done that but nothing in post 16 but I do have the VLM 1.3 but not sure what to do now.

got this so far, how do I fly the mission within GE ?

 

[Roamer105]

@Brojon.

Sorry again. Indeed there is a problem with altitudes for you guys working in imperial units. I had not realised that Google Earth always requires altitudes to be input in metres even if you specify imperial units! Go figure!

I have made yet another update to VLM to handle this. You should use the same units in VLM as you do in Litchi. If you choose imperial units then VLM will convert the altitudes to metres to keep Google Earth happy!

In the case of your "School Tower Loop" mission, the area around waypoint 1 where I suppose you plan to take off (your Home Point) has an altitude of about 800 feet according to Google Earth. You should therefore put 800 into the Altitude Home Point box in VLM. Hopefully that will now match the Litchi 3DPath.

With regard to the 'weird yawing' that you see on your mission, I think this is because Litchi and Google handle the interpolation between waypoints differently. Between your waypoints 5-6, Litchi rotates the Heading clockwise because that is the shortest angular change between the two points. Google seems to prefer smoothness and says that since you are rotating anticlockwise between waypoints 2-3, waypoints 3-4 and also between 4-5, it should continue to do so between wayponts 5-6. I don't think it is possible to change this behaviour.

Google recommend a maximum heading difference of 30 degrees between waypoints for tours in Google Earth. ( see Placing views for a tour - KMLtouring) I have tried adding a couple of extra waypoints between 5 and 6 and it works much better.

Hope this helps.

Unfortunately your download contains a VIRUS - windows defender does not like it and considers it severe. Can you check into this?

 

[okw]

I have put a limit of 5000' for the elevation - obviously too low. I will double that limit in the next release which should be enough unless you live in Tibet?

There are many places here in the US that are above 10,000' as well. Maybe go even higher to 15,000' or 20,000', unless there's a reason in the software not to.

 

[okw]

Unfortunately your download contains a VIRUS - windows defender does not like it and considers it severe. Can you check into this?

If you read back a few posts, you'll see that the file was checked and appears to be clean. Others have reported that Defender doesn't like it, but other scanners show it's fine.

 

[HubBub]

thanks HubBub, going to post 16 now

There is a newer version (1.0.2 I think) of the app further on.

 

[Captain Jack]

G'day from Australia, wishing all great flights in 2018
I have just downloaded the latest edition of VLM 1.0.3 and executed it, but my Avast antivirus put a halt to that, saying it was submitted for interrogation and would get back to me in a few hours. Then it promptly stopped the program from operating. In the small print, I have the option to bypass this and "trust" the file. Interesting. I'm guessing there'd not be a certificate associated with this file and hence it sets off our guards.

I'll give it a few hours just in case a gremlin has found it's way into the code, but WOW! Really looking forward to giving it a run. Thanks Heaps for your continued work. Much appreciated.

 

[okw]

I have just downloaded the latest edition of VLM 1.0.3 and executed it, but my Avast antivirus put a halt to that

Hmmm. Panda 18.01.00 antivirus software has no issues with it.

 

[Brojon]

I am no very tech minded but I do fly the Mavic and have some CSV files, how do I used this Virtual Litchi Mission 1.3 ?

Can I fly the mission or does it show the height and terrain of the flight ?

Hopefully you mean CSV files exported from Litchi mission hub.
Just to be clear it works with *any* mission created in Litch Mission Hub - no drone necessary.

 

[wombat]

Hopefully you mean CSV files exported from Litchi mission hub.
Just to be clear it works with *any* mission created in Litch Mission Hub - no drone necessary.

Can I fly the mission in GE ?
How would I do that ?

 

[namirda]

View attachment 27778 done that but nothing in post 16 but I do have the VLM 1.3 but not sure what to do now.

got this so far, how do I fly the mission within GE ?

Looks like it is working fine. Just select the "Virtual Mission" which is a subfolder of your mission in Temporary Places and then click the "Play Tour" button which is a bit lower down the GE page

 

[namirda]

Can I fly the mission in GE ?
How would I do that ?

Simply run the file "Virtual Litchi Mission.exe" - and no it does NOT have a virus!

Click on the "Help" tab and all the instructions are there.

 

[namirda]

G'day from Australia, wishing all great flights in 2018
I have just downloaded the latest edition of VLM 1.0.3 and executed it, but my Avast antivirus put a halt to that, saying it was submitted for interrogation and would get back to me in a few hours. Then it promptly stopped the program from operating. In the small print, I have the option to bypass this and "trust" the file. Interesting. I'm guessing there'd not be a certificate associated with this file and hence it sets off our guards.

I'll give it a few hours just in case a gremlin has found it's way into the code, but WOW! Really looking forward to giving it a run. Thanks Heaps for your continued work. Much appreciated.

Please take a look at post 54 on this thread and click on the link there. I uploaded the exe file to Virus Total who check it using almost every antivirus software tool known to man. It came out with a clean bill of health and so I have no clue where all this talk about viruses is coming from.

Anybody got any ideas?

 

[namirda]

There are many places here in the US that are above 10,000' as well. Maybe go even higher to 15,000' or 20,000', unless there's a reason in the software not to.

That's true - but I was initially thinking only in metres and 5000m is more than enough unless you are in the Himalayas. I will fix it in the next release for those of you in the Imperial world.

If you are running into this problem then please select "Metric" as your units system in VLM and you should be good to go. This will force VLM to convert your altitude to metres which should always be below 5000.

 

[marklyn]

Please take a look at post 54 on this thread and click on the link there. I uploaded the exe file to Virus Total who check it using almost every antivirus software tool known to man. It came out with a clean bill of health and so I have no clue where all this talk about viruses is coming from.

Anybody got any ideas?

No further ideas needed in my opinion. I also scan every file with BitDefender and I also put them through VirusTotal site as you do. The file is fine in my opinion. It is not unusual to have a false reading on a file for innocent reasons. When 99% of the virus engines on VirusTotal checks out ok, I'm very satisfied.

 

[Captain Jack]

Please take a look at post 54 on this thread and click on the link there. I uploaded the exe file to Virus Total who check it using almost every antivirus software tool known to man. It came out with a clean bill of health and so I have no clue where all this talk about viruses is coming from.

Anybody got any ideas?

I got tired of waiting for my virus checker to let this file run and clicked on "Trust this program" and away we went, all ran smoothly - Users Really must read your very helpful instructions found in the HELP tab.

Running my mission with your program controlling GE was nothing short of Spectacular. Thanks a heap. I'm going to spend the first day of 2018 programming several new missions around really isolated wilderness near us. Cheers from Downunder
Sailing Adventures ~ Explore Earth with Jack and Jude.

 

[HubBub]

View attachment 27778 done that but nothing in post 16 but I do have the VLM 1.3 but not sure what to do now.

got this so far, how do I fly the mission within GE ?

Well the Virtual Litchi Mission application intercepts a CSV file placed in a download folder that you created and configured in the app.

To create the CSV file from the displayed Mission you Click Missions in the Litchi Mission Hub and use the Export to CSV function.

The application then uses the CSV to create a virtual flight mission in a folder called "litchi_mission" under My Places in Google Earth Pro (GE). Then deselect all sub-element of the "litchi_mission" except Virtual Mission and click Play Tour (the camcorder icon under the litchi_mission folder) , it simulates running the Litchi Mission almost as though you were actually flying it with your drone.

As an added benefit you can also use the Tools/Movie Maker in GE to create a movie of said mission.

Hope you can make sense of this!

 

[Brojon]

You can also just double click the virtual mission to play it.

 

[wombat]

Looks like it is working fine. Just select the "Virtual Mission" which is a subfolder of your mission in Temporary Places and then click the "Play Tour" button which is a bit lower down the GE page

Hi namirda, thanks for this program works real great, I did eventually get it going with the help of yourself and other members here.

 

[Emu]

What chance there will be an Apple version of this?

 

[Brojon]

What chance there will be an Apple version of this?

If he's using Visual Studio 2017 it could be a possibility depending on how he wrote it. But it would kinda depend on whether he has a Mac to refine it on.